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Adapted from ‘Up Down Boy’ by Sue Shields with Myrtle Theatre Company
Reviewed by Sonya Stewart
It’s time for Mattie Baker (Lily Harper) to leave home and go to college, and Mattie’s mum (Trudy Pearson) is helping her pack. Or rather, she is doing the packing while the energetic and easily distracted Mattie is zooming around in a cape, listening to songs and playing with her imaginary friends (Michiel van Echten and Mycah Keall). In the end the only thing she tries to pack is a lifesize cutout of Shane from Westlife.
As many mothers of a teenage girl would attest, “most of my life is talking to doors.” But Mattie and her Mum are a couple of smart cookies, and their connection and sense of humour is obvious. The second youngest of six, Mattie is the last to leave home and her Mum is taking a trip down memory lane, while folding socks and searching for clean underwear.
Up Down Boy. Mudge met Harper when he ran a performance company for people with intellectual disabilities out of the Globe theatre in Palmerston North. “I was instantly caught by her unique perspective of the world and natural talent for performing. She brings an openness and huge desire,” Mudge said. Harper projects her own life experience to the story augmenting the original play with dance, song, skits and shadow play. “That process was led by Lily so what you see onstage is an extension of how she sees the world,” Mudge said. Harper’s commitment to her role rivalled any actor that Mudge had worked with.